exalt, I agree with your first sentence (in reference to the major rough terrain brands).
For sure resale value is dependent on the condition of the machine, but as the machine ages parts availability and service support become increasingly large factors.

Liftking would you agree that there might not be a premium product but there is a premium service or after sales support. On resale value it would depend on the condition of the original machine.

In regards to the rough terrain industry, there is not much separating the different brands. A quick look at the specification sheets show identical or comparable components. A "premium" price would be more related to perceived quality, warranty terms, after-sales support, and resale value.

Just another point before people say I'm nocking Linde. Kalmar used to have the volvo engine as standard now it's Cummins and Volvo a option.one reason for this might be to lower costs of the truck ,as well as Polish production

Just a quick point Linde and Hyster might be called a premium product in the USA but over 10 ton Hyundai and Doosan are killing them in sales now Hydundai and Doosan might not be called a Premium truck because they have the basic layout a customer is willing to pay for.


Now what a bout rental Linde do well with rental in Europe because of the spec of their trucks , butt he customer is not buying this truck he is only renting it with service price built in
And this could be lower than a customer paying for service separately as profit are made on both truck and service

ok
well if you are just talking about which brand is better overall then sure, what you guys are saying is true, service does come into play and it doesnt matter what brand it is, bad service will end up having a bad running machine usually.

good service usually helps prevent that but not always, some brands are just made badly and built with sub par parts (cheap), even the best service in the world will not make a particular brand any better than another in a case like that. A good tech can keep a truck running but if it winds up costing a customer alot then it kind of negates the good service because the customer is still going to look at the tech like why is my truck breaking all the time and why can you not make it run better without breaking down.

I will say this...
if you compare a standard built truck against a premium built truck in alot of cases i have found that the standard built truck with just basic controls on it usually does not have as many problems as a premium built truck, less bells and whistles so less to go wrong, less to deal with. ;o)

i was just keeping on topic about the 'standard v/s premium' part of it and was totally ignoring the other parts because that looked like that was what he was hitting on the most on comparing one against the other.
my bad :o)

You can have the most top of the line product with dealer support that su-ks , your screwe-.

You gotta look at the big picture dealer/OE parts & service is just one area of any product? My suggestion still stands as a viable part of this discussion.

well the point crownd is getting into is product support which is a whole different area of discussion that applies to every product sold on the market.
If that is worth discussing then maybe a new forum thread should be opened for that so it won't get this one off topic?
just a suggestion ;o)

I totally agree with crownd

i think there are a few of you that do not understand what the terms mean in terms of dealing with what manufacturers develop and sell for each model lift they make.
It was explained in my first post and that has not changed for years.
Manufacturers like hyster , yale, cat, any of them all design a model lift and generally they offer 2 options on each model to make the lift more palletable for customers buying them depending on the budget they have for purchasing a new lift.

- a standard model with basic systems
- a premium model with other options they can offer for improved performance or operator comfort and ergonomic comfort.

example: an electric lift can come with standard drive system and controls and contactor controlled hydraulics and basic dash panel with no options for operator access to the system, a standard seat with standard seatbelt. OR...
it can come with standard or high performance drive system and controls WITH hydraulic controller, all sensors for motors, a cushion suspension seat with adjustments and seatbelt with operator presence control incorporated into the circuits, ie: wired into the system, a premium dash panel that does allow for operator or tech access through the dash and will have customization settings that can be set by the operator or fine tuned by the tech servicing it. The drive motors will be either a standard 9" motor or an 11" motor for high performance (yale offers this option in their sit down electric trucks). Cat and hyster and other brand lifts have similar options.
ALL manufacturers are very competitive so you will see very similar options on each brand lift made no matter who manufactures it.

These are just examples of different options trucks are built with and will vary depending what the customer orders on the machine when it is sold.

these would be the differences you would see between a standard truck and a premium truck.

here are all levels of quality and pricing but as a customer I look at the local dealer support first, if you don't have that I stay away. So premium starts there for me.

Premium is in the eye of the beholder or buyer. By saying that Rolls Royce is a premium car because it is hand made and all that but remember, they are in a niche market and just like the Jaguar and Triumphs before them, they are born leaking. Saying all that for us in North America, the sister car the Bentley is more widely accepted. I certainly don't know why but they are. In Lift Trucks I think Premium is an acquired product. I am a Linde guy so most of their Hydrostatic products do have several premium features as do their 80 volt trucks. However if not sold but only quoted you won't get the benefits of Premium over Standard.

There is a lot more to making a decision on which brand to go with other than throwing out two brand names.
All comes down to what each dealership in your area is offering.

Not sure you are comparing apple to apple. The Linde is 80 volt with Crown being 36 or 48. Big differences in run time and efficiency.

I personally would choose crown without hesitation. They cant be beat for quality and if there's any chance you will do your own maintenance or choose someone other than the brand specific dealer to do your service, you will find crown to be much much more user friendly. No special software required every adjustment and calibration can be done from the display. Linde requires laptop and software for most adjustments or calibrations and this software is dealer only.

I'm currently in the market for a new electric forklift. After working with old propane equipment for twenty years, I'm looking at either the Crown LC series or the Linde E25S. Without listing questions individually, please share opinions and advice. Much appreciated!

No its just that when i speak to quite a lot of people in different areas of materials handling, most are always saying good about there own company, but nearly all say yes CROWN is a good warehouse equipment , in fact i can't think of any body who i have spoken to who has not said or when asked about said they have had a bad experience of a CROWN electric truck.


CROWN was mentioned by some one else in the post and i just found that a lot of people agree that CROWN are a quality product in electric warehouse.


Now the post was about premium products and above average would agree that CROWN might be called a premium product.



In the past i have been given stick for Bashing or criticising other manufactures and i don't really think i do its just i say what i think and what in reality most other people think butt hey can't say because of their job.


I don't have to worry about my boss reading what i say, It has been mentioned by other people about being warned about using social media to criticise the company they work for.

I get criticised on here but like i have said before every body are welcome to their own opinion and when i get criticised now i print it out blow it up and when i have a bad day or something don't go quite right i look at these i think yes i will prove you wrong.


Its getting quite a lot so i might get a full book soon

Exalt, are you going to work for crown or something ?

exhalt:
This is and always has been called Marketing jargon. It is just a matter of semantics. Nothing to get hung up.

In the US when some folks talk about braking capability the say the lift truck cane stop on a dime, in GB they say it can stop on a six pence. I don't know which one is larger but it doesn't cause it ain't possible

For decades most every manufacturer of ICE lift trucks (in the US) called their OEM air cleaners Heavy Duty. In reality there is nothing really Heavy Duty about them when it comes to filtering capability. Most air cleaner element as I recall are rated on air filtration efficiency at a give vacuum std. Donaldson A/C were rated something like 99.8% to 99.9% fro a given micron size of dirt particles. The only difference among most filters is the number of sq. in. or (cm) of the filtering media and the micron size filtering capability. The more "paper" the longer the service life. The cheapo after market filters needed to be replaced more frequently and engine work too as typical the larger dirt particles are allowed to pass through.